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Literary notes about suppress (AI summary)

In literature, "suppress" is a multifaceted term that conveys both internal restraint and external control. Characters often strive to suppress emotions—whether it is the effort to hide turmoil or prevent a smile from breaking through ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7])—adding layers of psychological complexity to their portrayal. At the same time, the word is employed to depict the deliberate restraint of thoughts, ideas, or movements, such as political uprisings, the flow of truth, or even cultural impulses ([8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]). This dual application enriches narratives by illustrating both personal battles with inner feelings and the broader, often oppressive, forces acting upon societies.
  1. He went forward to meet his uncle, prepared to suppress the agitation he must feel, whatever news he was to hear.
    — from Silas Marner by George Eliot
  2. But I suppress what I feel, and say nothing of it.'
    — from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
  3. Eh?” Dolly could scarcely suppress a smile.
    — from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy
  4. he went to heaven last week, in a oak coffin with plated handles, Oliver.' 'Come, sir,' said Mr. Grimwig, tartly; 'suppress your feelings.'
    — from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  5. “Yes, yes,” she said, evidently trying to suppress her jealous thoughts.
    — from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy
  6. I am so worried today.” “Oh, why?” asked Anna, trying to suppress a smile.
    — from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy
  7. After a moment's pause, Sir Thomas, trying to suppress a smile, went on.
    — from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  8. And yet perhaps, after all, it is better for a country that its seats of learning should do more to suppress mental growth than to encourage it.
    — from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler
  9. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible.
    — from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
  10. They suppress the truth rather than take the consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove themselves a part of the human family.
    — from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
  11. If they please thee and the other sages, publish; if not, suppress them.
    — from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne
  12. We thought it necessary to put a stop to this confusion, and to suppress the proper names, which are always easy to guess.
    — from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo
  13. "It is easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it."
    — from From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin by William Makepeace Thayer
  14. The court took offense easily at political allusions, and attempted to suppress them.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  15. The kings of Quito, the Incas of Peru, and for a long time the Spaniards were unable to suppress the bloody rite.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  16. They desire to suppress discussion on this subject, with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of slavery.
    — from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
  17. Conversely, the efforts to suppress the rising national consciousness took the form of an effort to censor or suppress the national press.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park

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